Obituary

Norman West obituary

Norman West, a Labour MEP from 1984 to 1998, who has died aged 73, was – like Arthur Scargill – a lifelong resident of Worsbrough, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, a miner and son of a miner. He was one of a near-extinct genus of political representatives with actual experience as a manual worker.

He passed the 11-plus to gain a place at Barnsley grammar school but later gave up an apprenticeship at Stocksbridge steelworks to become a miner at Barrow pit in 1955. From the outset, he was active in the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), where a struggle developed between the rightwing establishment and an emerging militant left, which included Scargill and West.

The leftwingers aimed to step up the improvement of miners' wages and conditions and to secure the election of like-minded officials. Their efforts culminated in the strikes of 1972 and 1974, and the election of Scargill to the presidency of the NUM in 1981.

As a member of the Labour party, West was elected, in turn, as a Worsbrough local councillor, a South Yorkshire county councillor and, in 1984, as the MEP for South Yorkshire.

The last of these elections coincided with the outbreak of the 1984-85 miners' strike. In addition to supporting the struggle and seeking to raise funds for those on strike, West secured a place on the European parliament's energy committee and produced a report which highlighted the need for a strong coal production policy. As Britain is now importing more than 40m tonnes of coal a year, his arguments cannot be dismissed out of hand – although, of course, we need a clean coal combustion process.

When the NUM's assets were sequestered, West agreed to become one of two trustees of a secret fund to provide aid to the strikers.

In the European parliament, he was a member of the Campaign Group of Labour MEPs and worked to move the party to the left. Despite reservations about the case for British membership, he was a committed internationalist and gave his full support to campaigns and initiatives to promote peace and aid the oppressed and the persecuted across the world. Throughout his life, he never faltered or prevaricated in his socialist beliefs.

West is survived by his wife, Shirley, two sons and four grandchildren.

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